Report of Cllr Philip Atkins, Leader of
Staffordshire County Council, Cllr Alan White, Deputy Leader and
Cabinet Member for Health, Care and Wellbeing, Cllr Keith Flunder,
All Party Member Group Cabinet Support Member
(Innovation)

Councillor Flunder, the Cabinet Support Member
for the All Party Member Group (APMG) for Innovation, presented the
final report of the group which had been set up to look at
“How do we promote children’s emotional
and mental wellbeing to reduce referrals to specialist services at
Staffordshire County Council and other partners by intervening
earlier to ensure better long-term outcomes?”

The key parts which the APMG
had focused on included: improving access to information, training
and awareness resources; improving community networks;
strengthening members role within communities; building resilience
of children and young people and the place-based approach;
development of outcomes across the partnership to monitor
children’s emotional wellbeing.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Support
Member (CSM) for the report and opened debate.

A Member of the Committee commented that a lot
of the findings in the report and the recommendations had been made
before and would need a lot of partnership commitment to be
delivered. They also asked how health
and wellbeing could be promoted when the Children and Mental Health
Services (CAMHS) budget had been reduced. The CSM informed the Committee that the purpose of
the report was to reduce the demand on services like CAMHS through
for example, better use of early intervention in Children’s
Centres.

A question was asked on the consultation with
the Select Committee and how had the APMG avoided duplication of
work. The CSM responded that one of the
recommendations was for better coordination.

The
Head of Child Health and Wellbeing informed the Committee that the
focus of the work had been early intervention. She went on to explain the consultation process
and the various organisations that had been consulted during the
work of the group.

A
Member asked why there was no mention of the Governments Prevent
agenda and also what the group’s definitions of Well Being
and Mental Illness had been. The CSM
informed Members that the group had used national definitions
which, with hindsight, should have been in the report for clarity
and that the Prevent agenda was aimed at older children and
parents.

A question was asked
on what leverage the Local Authority had on schools now that they
had all become academies, this was with specific reference to the
number of recommendations made that involved schools. Also the Multi Agency Centres (MAC’s) and
mini MAC’s had been downgraded and didn’t have the same
level of funding as they’d had in the past so how would the
recommendations be delivered? The CSM
informed the group that the review had aimed at work with the
primaries and nursery schools and that affordability would be the
next stage in the review. He felt that
the authority needed to build on what was there now e.g.
Children’s Centres, School and communities. The Head of Child Health and
Wellbeing said that Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) will be
submitting a bid, as a trailblazer, to deliver school based mental
health provision. In addition some
districts have identified funding form building resilient families
for school ...
view the full minutes text for item 19.

The Scrutiny and Support Manager presenting
the report which gave information on the Select Committees activity
over the past six months from January to June 2018. Following consideration by this Committee the
report would be presented to Full Council.

A Member asked what the purpose of the report
was. In response it was explained that
the report gave members an opportunity to receive a summary of the
work of all the Select Committees.

A Member asked what debate would be allowed at
the Council meeting given that there was no desire for the same
scrutiny to be done by a different set of members. The Scrutiny and Support Manager informed the
Committee that he would clarify the ability to question at the
Council meeting and inform Members before the next meeting.

The possibility of submitting written
questions to Full Council on the outcomes report, was discussed.

RESOLVED: That the report be
approved for submission to County Council.

The Scrutiny and Support Manager
presented the Committees work programme report. The meeting scheduled for the 2 October 2018 had
been reserved for any Call-in items.

The Local Enterprise Partnership
(LEP) annual review would remain in the work programme until a date
was agreed with Stoke on Trent City Council.

RESOLVED: That the report be
noted.

22.

Exclusion of the Public

The Chairman to move:-

“That the public be excluded from the meeting for the
following items of business which involve the likely disclosure of
exempt information as defined in the paragraphs of Schedule 12A (as
amended) of Local Government Act 1972 indicated
below”.

PART TWO

(All reports in this section are exempt)

Minutes:

RESOLVED That the public be
excluded from the meeting for the following items of business which
involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in
the Paragraphs Part 1 of Schedule 12A Local Government Act 1972 (as
amended) indicated below.